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This week, a spate of stores reported that an Acer sales executive had predicted the slow death of netbooks as tablets take off. Some took the news as an opportunity to tap-dance on the netbook's grave. But now Acer is saying that it was all a big misunderstanding.

Here's a bit of a statement the company released after those initial reports, under the title "Acer NOT phasing out netbooks in favor of tablet:"

Mobility, which has always been part of Acer's DNA, finds a new form of expression in the range of tablets on offer, which feature various display sizes and models designed to fit different kinds of usage scenarios. Acer recognizes that the computer market is changing. As PCs are no longer only used to create content but are more and more becoming consumption tools, new devices and new form factors are appearing.

This means the range of devices available to users is getting wider and tablets are just another piece of the mosaic. Therefore, they will find their space next to netbooks and notebooks.

One of the things I like about Acer is that its executives are sometimes startlingly honest (when it came to the fiasco known as Windows Vista, CEO Gianfranco Lanci didn't mince words). So I suspect that the Acer honcho quoted in the original stories wasn't misquoted -- and that if his point was that tablets will cut into netbook sales, he's right.

PC World has the details HERE!